How Does Nature, Specifically Animals, Reinforce the Features of a Character’s Frame of Mind and Enhance the Idea It Illustrates?

As much as humanity is part of nature, nature is part of humanity. Macbeth’s assassination of Duncan and the entire plot it stems from create an imbalance that is more than purely political—it extends to include nature herself. Throughout Macbeth, the natural world plays a significant role in capturing, and even more, accounting for the character’s frame of mind. Most often, the chaotic natural forces justify the disorder in which the characters find themselves: they are inevitable forces that the characters are either eager to acquire or compliantly adhere to.

In order to showcase the disruption in nature that Macbeth has selfishly caused, Shakespeare employs images of animals to a great extent. Banquo comments on the “temple-haunting martlet” to express the amity in the air at Macbeth’s residence (1.6.6). Ironically, however, a martlet is not a bird: it has no feet—therefore, it simply could not have been a natural visitor. Nature has already been disrupted, for upon such description, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have already been discussing the assassination of the king. The host has upset the natural order, and this violation of nature, through the form of a martlet’s sojourn, forsahdows the impending tragedy and hints at Banquo his time to come. The man full of desire and covert ambition positions himself in the passive stance of a naive man. He claims to wait for his oracle to “set [him] up in hope”; his predetermined future lets loose of anxiety and keeps the man waiting (3.1.10).

Another rather alarming reference to animals regards an owl: an animal often associated with wisdom and knowledge. Upon the death of the king, Lady Macbeth claims to hear the owl “shriek” and “scream”: reactions to pain or anger (2.2.3, 2.2.5). A creature of both nature and knowledge, the owl seems to communicate the almost physical pain that the natural order suffers from as a result of this political turmoil—hence an offence to natural justice. Furthermore, one of the most significant references depicts “a mousing owl” that dares hunt the prideful falcon—the king of the flying creatures (2.4.15). Disobeying the divinely established food-chain and attacking its superior, the owl clearly parallels Macbeth, who had betrayed his master and aroused political disorder.

Furthermore, Macduff insists on living “as birds do” and be satisfied “With what [he gets]” (4.2.32, 4.2.33). Unlike Macbeth, who

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